From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity

Neither immigrants nor ethnics, neither foreign nor hyphenated Americans in the usual sense of that term, Puerto Ricans in New York have created a distinct identity both on the island of Puerto Rico and in the cultural landscape of the United States. Juan Flores considers the uniqueness of Puerto Rican culture and identity in relation to that of other Latino groups in the United Statesas well as to other minority groups, especially African Americans. Architecture and urban space, literary traditions, musical styles, and cultural movements provide some of the sites and moments of a cultural world defined by the interplay of continuity and transformation, heritage and innovation, roots and fusion. Exploring this wide range of cultural expressionboth in the diaspora and in Puerto RicoFlores highlights the rich complexities and fertile contradictions of Latino identity.